Project ADAPT News: InfoMaker To Continue as Harvard's Data Query Tool

Harvard has selected InfoMaker as the query tool for accessing information which will become available with Project ADAPT's new business systems. The decision to continue to use InfoMaker is the result of a two-month process in which ADAPT's data team and a committee representing Harvard's ''power users'' evaluated the effectiveness of a half-dozen alternative query and reporting products for gathering information from the new ''data warehouse.''

The development of a new data warehouse is a core component of Project ADAPT, and its goal is to provide an improved information reporting and query environment for the core Oracle applications. The new data warehouse will enable authorized users to have on-line access to management and reporting data which reside separately from Oracle's on-line transaction processing, and which are updated on a nightly basis. Information in the data warehouse will include not only financial data, but also data from the grants management and human resource systems, as ADAPT implements these systems in later phases of the project.

With the new data warehouse, users will have two main ways of finding information: 1) through ''canned'' (pre-designed) reports which serve most of Harvard's approximate 2,000 users; and 2) through InfoMaker, which gives advanced users (about 100 individuals who through extensive training will gain the detailed knowledge of the warehouse structure needed to create customized reports) access to the full range of data being stored from the Oracle applications. For example, an analyst in Purchasing might use InfoMaker to examine purchase order and invoice information from the Oracle Purchasing system to search for opportunities to develop additional strategic vendor relationships, and then examine the service records of potential vendors by reviewing their volumes of back orders.

To complement InfoMaker, Project ADAPT is purchasing NoetixViews for each of the Oracle applications. These products simplify use of the extremely complex Oracle data structures by providing ''business object'' views. For example, in the Accounts Payable area, there are views for bank accounts, checks, invoices, and expense reports, and more specialized invoice views such as invoices on hold, invoice prepayments, invoice discounts, and invoice pay schedules.

The Project ADAPT data warehouse strategy has grown from Harvard's use of the Information Utility (IU), the data warehouse for our existing General Ledger and Human Resource systems, managed by the central administration's University Information Systems. The IU began in 1987 as an experiment in giving Harvard staff direct access to General Ledger transactions to satisfy a growing demand for reporting information, both in paper copy and in electronic format. Once the usefulness of the IU was established, Human Resource reports became available as well. This information is now available to users in ways similar to the new data warehouse: through the standardized reports, and through specialized queries with InfoMaker, which Harvard chose in a similar selection process in 1995.

In a multitude of ways, Harvard's current selection of InfoMaker is excellent news for users of the data warehouse. Training can be focused on the new data structures introduced by the Oracle Applications, rather than on the mechanics of the InfoMaker tool, since current users are already familiar with the product.

Additionally, Harvard's operational infrastructure is already in place to support InfoMaker.

Beth Quigley, Human Resource Analyst for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and a member of the query tool selection committee, conveys her enthusiasm for the product: ''I've been using InfoMaker as a client of the IU for a couple of years and find some of its features to be very useful: the graphical interface used to build standard SQL statements, the drag and drop report formatting, the easy export of report data to Excel and, especially, the 'executive button' feature which enables a user to run 'canned' reports at the touch of a button. Finally, the capability of creating our own tables to be joined with base tables has been a terrific feature!''

By no means, though, was Harvard's familiarity with InfoMaker the only reason for its selection. The selection committee which worked with ADAPT carefully considered the technical and functional requirements of the new data warehouse, each tool's data management capabilities, reporting capabilities, security capabilities, possibilities for World Wide Web connectivity, and pricing. In the final analysis, InfoMaker led the pack in satisfying Harvard's needs because of its extensive functionality in supporting graphical creation of complex SQL statements and in allowing users to create and maintain their own data in adjunct databases, features available in almost no other tool.

The new data warehouse will become operational in January of 1999, concurrent with Harvard's cutover to the new financial systems.

The IU will continue to receive new payroll and personnel data until the time when ADAPT implements Harvard's new human resource system. In addition, the IU will preserve data from the old general ledger and payroll/personnel systems in their original form for those who may wish to perform historical analysis, and also to comply with Federal audit requirements.

IUCare, provided by the UIS Helpdesk, will continue to be the main point of contact for questions and problems which users have with both the IU and the new data warehouse. Training on the Oracle applications and InfoMaker (for new users) is a prerequisite for gaining access to the data warehouse. Project ADAPT will make available training information and schedules in the summer of 1998.

Project ADAPT News: About Harvard's New Reporting Requirements

Project ADAPT is conducting an effort to identify Harvard' s reporting requirements for the new general ledger, accounts payable and purchasing systems. The effort will define for the project team the information that the Harvard community needs from the new Oracle applications, and it will also provide guidance for how the information may be presented. To gather a comprehensive list of requirements, an ADAPT team spoke with representatives of the schools, the service departments, the museums, the libraries, and the Central Administration.

In defining Harvard's reporting needs, representatives considered the following questions: what needs are not being met by the current systems; which financial reports currently generated by Central Administration will continue to be necessary; which schools or departments have a ''shadow'' system for financials, and what reports do these shadow systems provide; what queries people run on the Information Utility; and what special needs people have related to budgeting.

After extensive interviewing of the university representatives, the ADAPT team has identified the list of reports that are commonly used across the University and which will continue to be critical in meeting Harvard's business requirements. These include the following:

* Account Summary - shows account balances by account (or range of accounts) as of certain dates.

* Balance Sheet - shows account balances and activity by account (or range of accounts).

* Budget - shows current year budget in comparison to actual by account (or range of accounts).

* Income and Expense - shows detailed expense and income items posted against certain accounts (or range of accounts).

* Journal Entry - shows the journal entry category for each transaction.

* Administrator's Workstation (AWS) reports. Harvard's schools and departments expressed strong satisfaction with the reports that are currently available from the AWS - so much so that they want their staff to make even greater use of them in the future. Schools and departments are also looking forward to the time they will be able to generate reports at will that now come at pre-determined intervals from the Central Administration.

Dan Brody, Assistant Dean for Finance at the Kennedy School of Government, provides insight into why ADAPT' s new reporting capabilities have such significance for Harvard when he explains the benefits to his own school: ''The Kennedy School uses several hundred different subdepartment codes to keep track of the activity of our various teaching, research, and administrative programs and offices. The current (14-digit) chart of accounts provides no way for us to report on income and spending at a level that is meaningful to program managers. The only options are school-wide (too broad) and individual subdepartment (too narrow). Therefore, we need to go to a great deal of trouble to maintain a 'shadow system' that groups subdepartments into meaningful categories. The school's organizational structure will be built into Project ADAPT's new chart of accounts. We won't need to continue our shadow system, and our program managers will have on-line access to financial information about their entire program, not just tiny pieces of it.''

The ADAPT reporting team's next steps will be to categorize each of the 820 reports gathered from the local units, and to determine which reports are available from the standard Oracle applications. Those that are not standard in the Oracle applications will be reviewed to determine other ways - such as custom coding - in which to provide the information. It is possible that some reports now generated by shadow systems will still need to come from those systems, at least for the time being. After this reporting requirements analysis is complete, ADAPT will provide the results to Harvard' s schools and departments so that they understand how their reporting needs will be addressed with the new systems.

Project ADAPT News: ADAPT Achieves Milestone with Completion of Prototype 1

In January, the Project ADAPT financial team concluded testing of the first prototype for Harvard's new financial processing and reporting systems.

The findings of these tests mark a major milestone toward Harvard's change to new financial systems in January of 1999.

Using Harvard Business School data for the testing environment, Prototype 1 ("P1" in project jargon) confirms processing capability in the areas of purchase orders, invoices, payment processing, expense reporting, and several other functions, establishing "proof of concept."

In the coming weeks, ADAPT will be presenting the findings of P1 to teams implementing ADAPT in Harvard's schools and departments.

More detailed information about the prototype process, as well as the latest updates about Prototype 1 and Prototype 2, can be found on ADAPT's updated Web page: http://www.adapt.harvard.edu